According to Aliyu Bagudu Abubakar, director-general of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, there aren’t enough prisons in Nigeria to house inmates.

About 66,000 of the 70,000 prisoners in Nigeria’s prison population, or 73% of the total, are reportedly awaiting trial, according to Abubakar.

In an interview with reporters yesterday, he discussed the Reforming Pretrial Detention in Nigeria Initiatives (RPDNII) at a three-day training session for pro bono attorneys and legal clinicians. The event was sponsored by the Public Private Development Center (PPDC), a civil society organization, in Abuja.

He said “the issue of congestion in our correctional centers is probably a twofold problem: there aren’t enough centers, and, more importantly, the remand system detains people for minor issues, leading to overcrowding.

“As big as we are, our correctional centers are not sufficient. It’s not that the number of cases we have is outrageous; the problem is that correctional centers meant for 500 inmates end up housing 1000 inmates, leading to overcrowding.”

He added that “As much as we are trying to get it right at the levels of investigation, arrests and prosecution, I can assure you that the issue of congestion in our system will be a thing of the past.

“We are aiming to reduce the 60 per cent of awaiting trial inmates, and they will eventually find their way out of the correctional centers.”

On efforts to reduce congestion, he noted, “As an institutional government, we are doing our best to reduce the numbers of people by the day. Unfortunately, the more we reduce, the more people are handed over to the centers.

“You can imagine if you have 90,000 inmates and only manage to reduce less than 60 per cent, say 50 out of 90, you would be left with 40 per cent, and that 40,000 would be too small for our correctional centers.”

Jibril Shittu, the CEO of the Public Affairs Development Center, emphasized that in order to improve the inefficient justice system and lower the number of prisoners awaiting trial, different stakeholders must work together.

In light of the fact that some detainees have no justification for being held, he emphasized the significance of considering alternatives to trial detention as well.